As electronic devices are becoming increasingly prevalent in the world, the use of such devices is becoming increasingly necessary for the normal performance of our major life activities of working, learning, and generally enhancing the quality of life. Yet, although these electronic devices are easily accessible to most people, they are partially or entirely inaccessible to certain individuals with disabilities, whose normal performance of major life activities is thereby substantially limited.
The root of this disparity in access to electronic devices lies in the fact that people use various individualized and specialized modes of communication, while electronic devices are normally designed to interface with humans via one or two fixed modes. It has become customary to design all electronic devices to use standard input and output devices to communicate with people because most people have normal visual, motor, and auditory abilities that enable them to use these standard devices. The electronic devices, however, then become inaccessible to many people who temporarily or permanently lack these normal abilities. For example, the typical human communicates with a computer via a display screen, a keyboard and a mouse. Consequently, most computers are partly or completely inaccessible to any human with a visual or motor disability. The same limitations apply to most other electronic devices which are designed with particular input and output devices built into the same physical encasing. Such is the case, for example, with microwave ovens, automatic teller machines, telephones, fax machines, and vending machines. The input devices (usually including an arrangement of keys) and output devices (usually including a simple visual display and/or auditory tones) in these cases are normally fixed for the life of the device. This immediately limits their accessibility to those people having the corresponding motor and visual skills.
Numerous other problems arise because of these design limitations. For example, most people, when they find it necessary or desirable to switch from one computer to another, usually can adapt easily to a new input device, such as a different keyboard. For an individual with a disability, however, such a change can involve great inconvenience and may even be practically impossible. Consider, for example, a girl who is unable to operate a conventional keyboard. She may have an obvious disability due to paralysis or amputation, or some less obvious condition such as multiple sclerosis, ALS, carpal tunnel, or tendonitis. One way for her to communicate with her personal computer is through a custom-designed headband which permits her to send signals similar to Morse code to her computer using muscle contractions in her forehead. The computer and its software are custom modified to convert these coded signals into certain keystrokes. This personal input device, however, must be designed to operate in accordance with the particular hardware specifications of her computer. As a result, switching to a different computer would involve disconnecting the personal input device from her computer and connecting it to the other computer. If the other computer is not the same model, this may involve redesigning the personal input device hardware to conform to the different hardware specifications of the other computer. In addition, the operation of her headband requires customized computer software that decodes the Morse code signals, and this software must also be adapted to the other computer. Clearly, the prospect of switching computers would be inconvenient for her, if not practically impossible, and the girl would be limited to using just one computer which is specially equipped for her.
Similar difficulties arise with individuals having other types of disabilities and, consequently, with other types of personal input and output devices. For example, instead of the headband, the girl of the above example could use an eye tracker or speech recognition system for input. Such a system also involves custom designed hardware and software for use with a particular computer system. Again, switching computers would be inconvenient or impractical.
Although the special headband enables the girl in the above example to gain access to her home computer, all the other electronic devices in her home such as telephones, fax machines, and microwave ovens present accessibility problems to her as well. To gain access to all these devices, it would be necessary to custom-design special hardware and software interfaces for each device; needless to say, this would be an expensive endeavor. Even if an elaborate effort were made to customize these devices for her use, whenever she purchased a new phone, TV, stereo, or microwave oven, she would have the additional expense of customizing it. More limiting, however, is the fact that this solution does not give her access to any electronic devices outside of her own home. In short, the traditional solution of customizing private devices to understand individual input and output devices does not solve the central problem of accessibility since it is expensive, inconvenient and does not allow access to public devices.
In addition to limiting the personal freedom of many individuals with disabilities, the restricted accessibility of many electronic devices can have detrimental effects on anyone who uses them. For example, individuals whose work involves long hours of computer data entry via keyboard often develop carpal-tunnel syndrome which thereafter limits their ability to type. A person previously able to access a (computer through a keyboard then becomes a person disabled from doing so. In other words, computers that are limited to keyboard input become inaccessible to the very people who need to use them the most. Similar problems arise in relation to pointing devices and video displays. Thus, limitations to the input and output devices associated with electronic devices inevitably and inadvertently limit the accessibility of those very devices, and consequently limit the freedom of the individuals who use them.
One obvious way to make electronic devices accessible via many different modes of communication is to build the devices with all possible input and output interfaces. This solution, however, is economically unfeasible. Moreover, it is practically impossible to provide every electronic device with an entire array of various specialized input and output devices to accommodate every possible human access preference or need. On the other hand, it is equally impractical to customize every device an individual may need to use as the need arises. Accordingly, there is a widespread and longstanding need for devices and methods to address these important issues of human accessibility to electronic devices.